- Motherboard scrap prices?
New Guy
Hiya,
Was just looking at scrap prices at a couple of places, can anyone tell me if the prices change according to what you have done to the board?
For instance, one site says large socket mother boards (no batteries) $2.80 lb. Small socket $1.60 etc. I am totally new to this e-scrapping!! My
question is this: Does that price stay the same if I have depopulated the boards about 100%.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
As long as the socket is still on the board you'll be fine. Without the socket they can't tell if it's a large or small socket...Originally Posted by Magzz63
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Depopulating the boards will lower the price. If you're taking off chips that are permenantly attached, you've reduced the amount of PM that can be recovered
If you mean "depopulated the boards about 100%" literally then no one will give you anything near that price, at least not if they want to stay in business. I wouldn't buy a completely stripped motherboard for higher than midgrade-low price and then only if it had visible gold trace.
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If you are new to ewaste, why are you depopulating boards??
New Guy
I have a bad habit of doing thing hastily! I guess I figured if I was going to remove all the plated pins, IC's, MLCC's, Tantalums,That the rest was garbage anyway so I depopulated a few boards. This is why I came to ask before I did anymore. My scrap is adding up fast and I am over my head as far as knowledge about this stuff. I have a lot to learn for sure.
I just found that a lot of my sound blaster audio cards are totally gold plated under the solder cover, same with a pile of synaptic cards I got from really old IBM think pads. I like collecting all the PM's and chips and stuff, like I said it's a hobby to me. So if I have the time it is better to get less for board and keep collecting the rest?
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
My last post was sarcasm. To get the most monetary value from your boards you should sell them without depopulating anything. Then if you want to collect PM take the money from selling your boards and buy some gold or silver.
BTW what solder cover are you talking about on sound blaster cards? I have boxes of new sound blaster cards.
Last edited by 520; 12-21-2018 at 04:33 PM.
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I think he's talking about the green solder mask.
Solder mask or solder stop mask or solder resist is a thin lacquer-like layer of polymer that is usually applied to the copper traces of a printed circuit board for protection against oxidation and to prevent solder bridges from forming between closely spaced solder pads. Wikipedia
Most circuit boards have copper under the solder mask but a few have gold. There are some display boards in in certain phones I scrap that have the gold under the solder mask which means more money.
New Guy
Yes the solder mask, thank you Jimicrk. the sound blasters have a brown solder mask. What is your opinion Jimicrk as far as depopulating my boards? Is it worth more in the long run to someone like me that has all the time to do it? If I just sell off the boards as is it kinda kills the hobby part for me.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I take the battery of the board, mostly they just clip into a plastic surround attached to the board, that's the coin sized battery.
If it's soldered to the board by metal strips, I use pliers to work it off. Don't use force or just your fingers. When that metal strip rips or breaks, it's really sharp & you can ( I did ) slice yourself on it ( badly ).
The other battery's I often find on Apple equipment is a cylinder shaped Purple & Green Lithium battery. Some are replaceable & some are soldered onto the board.
There's been a few other odd battery's, mostly a plastic box double side taped onto the board.
Battery's HAVE to be removed before transport as a safety measure.
I also any Ferrous metal off as well.
That's the 'Tinsel' from the face of the USB etc sockets, normally it's held on by the Chrome/Nickel plated Brass hexagon screws. (It's NOT the metal sheilding surrounding sockets)
The extra metal around the CPU socket, the lever & the top plate of pinless CPU, the metal plate on the back of the board that's used to attach the heatsink assembly to the board. Most of the time it's a 'X' shape with 4 threaded holes in it.
Aluminium heatsinks. There's ones held on by screws, some held on by pins, or soldered on tabs crimped into the heatsink.
And some are glued to a SMD chip on the board. I twist it first with a screwdriver or pliers & it might come off, if it's not moving, a heatgun/paint stripper aimed at it for a few seconds will soften the glue enough.to loosen it.
Sometimes when I have tried levering them off, the chip breaks off the board.
Any large Aluminium can capacitors that will make stacking the board's later on harder, or waste space when packing. They are worth less than the board, so taking them off increases the value of the board to the buyer anyway.
Excess Steel may devalue the board's, find out first. The buyer will probably specify, if they don't, find out the answer. The extra weight could increase shipping costs.
Aluminium heatsinks, again, worth less than the board. I have seen it specificed that there "should be no heatsinks". Mostly they are extruded Ali. So not that much of a loss.
Copper heatsinks. They are worth more than the board ( by weight ). So you make extra coin by removing them. It's rare to find them though.
That's all that I would take off the board except the CPU & memory sticks.
Last edited by eesakiwi; 12-24-2018 at 05:34 AM.
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